sport news Brendon McCullum wants England to take risks to become the best Team team in ... trends now
Brendon McCullum breezed into Lord’s yesterday and, with almost evangelical zeal, vowed to rid England of their fear of failure and take them back to the top of the Test world.
The Kiwi, boldly chosen by Rob Key to drag England off the bottom of the World Test Championship, will look at how his great friend, Eoin Morgan, transformed English white-ball cricket and follow his example.
And McCullum, who inspired Morgan’s revolution in the first place with his own transformation of New Zealand, will be happy to take risks as he tries to convince the next generation that good old Test cricket can be as sexy as Twenty20.
Brendon McCullum has been placed in charge of turning England's red-ball fortunes around
Managing director Rob Key has said he was very impressed by the way McCullum interviewed
McCullum is set to work alongside England's new Test captain Ben Stokes
‘It is what we are all aspiring to do,’ said McCullum when asked if England can return to No1 in the Test rankings. ‘It will take a bit of time but we want to make sure by the Ashes next year we will be taking on the best teams in the world and are either beating them or are very difficult to beat.
‘I looked at what England have achieved in white-ball cricket and what Eoin Morgan has done is what I’m hoping to do with Ben Stokes. Why can’t the same thing happen with the Test side? Ben wants to bring about that same freedom of mindset and strip away some of the noise that comes with playing at this level. My views are aligned with his.’
It was easy to see why Key eschewed the obvious choice of South African Gary Kirsten for this job and plumped for a man with no first-class coaching experience and who, by his own admission, is no great technician. As the managing director says: ‘Man alive, he talks impressively.’
McCullum, one of the most significant figures in world cricket over the past 10 years, will focus on creating an environment that will champion New Zealand’s ‘no d***heads policy’ and let others concentrate on trigger movements.
‘My skills are not necessarily around taking a team from good to great,’ he said when asked why he did not take the more obvious route of joining up with Morgan as white-ball coach. ‘My skills lie in turning a team in a bit of trouble into one that has long-term sustainable success. If you are going to change your entire life for something, it has got to be a pretty big challenge. And opportunities like this don’t come around too often.’
McCullum believes he can make England the best Test team in the world if he is given time
McCullum spoke to former England coach Trevor Bayliss before taking the Test role
McCullum talked to both Andy Flower and Trevor Bayliss, as outsiders with
